Florian Bobin discusses the deepening crisis in Senegal, including the repression and bloodshed of the last few years, efforts to unseat the president and the prospect for a radical left alternative emerging in the country.
Omar Blondin Diop depicted among other African and African American activists in a mural painted on June 15, 2020 by the Senegalese graffiti collective Radikal Bomb Shot in Dakar [Courtesy of RBS]
On May 11, 1973, Senegalese revolutionary activist Omar Blondin Diop was declared dead in a prison on Gorée Island, off the coast of the Senegalese capital, Dakar. His life and tragic death have remained a potent symbol of the revolutionary struggle in Senegal.
Today, his image is featuring prominently in anti-government and anti-neocolonialism protests. On March 2, 2021, just hours before Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko’s arrest, the Front for an Anti-Imperialist Popular and Pan-African Revolution (FRAPP), a major youth-led protest organisation, held a press conference to call for mobilisation against the “project to liquidate [opposition] activists” in Senegal. Diop’s portrait stood prominently behind the speakers at the presser.